Who Knew? Freshwater stinging jellyfish in North America

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shoredivr

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This past year I have been diving in Ontario, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. No salt water. Lakes, rivers, reservoirs.

Just took my regs in for service and my buddy who was servicing a first stage got stung by some clear slime inside the reg. I would have remembered getting stung, as I've been stung in salt water before and know the sensation.

I googled freshwater jellies and got a Cnidaria, a stinging jelly, Craspedacusta sowerbii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"C. sowerbii is usually found in calm, freshwater reservoirs, lakes, impoundments, gravel pits or quarries. They have also been seen in river systems such as the Allegheny River, the Ohio River and the Tennessee River in the United States and the Wang Thong River of Thailand. They prefer standing water, and are not generally seen in fast flowing streams or rivers.

C. sowerbii has a global distribution - it has been found in countries on almost every continent and nearly every state in America (no reports yet from Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska or Hawaii) and most provinces in Canada (no reports yet from Alberta, Saskatchewan).[1] In 1981, C. sowerbii was reported in Argentina.[2] More recently, it has been reported in Brazil.[3]
C. sowerbii has also been recently found in the Cauvery River and backwaters of the Hemavathi River in Karnataka, India.[4]
The medusa's appearance is sporadic and unpredictable from year to year. It is not uncommon for C. sowerbii to appear in a body of water where it had never been documented before, in very large numbers, and its appearance may even be reported on the local news."

Who knew?

---------- Post added May 11th, 2012 at 09:37 AM ----------

A search of SB shows people seeing them in quarries back in 2005-6, anybody seen them recently?
 
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